It’s been a whirlwind of a week —I have so much to share with you! Here are three exciting updates:
Update # 1 – Immigration protections for workers involved in labor disputes can now be granted for up to 4 years!
After months of advocating alongside allied organizations, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agreed to extend immigration protections for workers involved in labor disputes to up to four years.
This protection helps immigrant and migrant workers speak up against labor abuse by lessening the risk of immigration-based retaliation by allowing them to stay and work in the United States while helping US authorities investigate workplace abuse and hold low-road employers accountable.
Labor investigations usually take a long time, so extending immigration protections for workers involved in labor disputes to four years just makes sense. And we are beyond proud that our tireless efforts were successful and we were able to deliver this win alongside immigrant and migrant workers.
This win is a true testament of what we can achieve when organizations and migrant workers align our objectives, strategies and intentions.
Update # 2 – CDM at the White House!
Yesterday, CDM’s Deputy Advocacy Director Shane Crary Ross, and Campaign Strategist, Ricardo Ortiz, participated in the White House H-2 Interagency Working Group meeting, where Shane briefed administration officials on the widespread gender discrimination migrant worker women face in guestworker programs, especially the H-2 visa programs.
She shared digital ads that we encounter every day in social media offering job opportunities for male workers only, in blatant disregard for the US’s anti-discrimination laws. She also shared a few key recommendations to reduce gender inequality in guestworker programs such as increasing data transparency —gender data in particular— facilitating access from abroad to EEOC complaint processes and ensuring the US lives up to its obligations under the USCMA by removing barriers to migrant worker access to legal services funded by the Legal Services Corporation.
Alongside other Migration that Works member organizations we also took this invaluable opportunity to advance some of our advocacy priorities. Among other things, we continued sounding the alarm on legislative attacks on carnival workers’ rights, and the need for the government to play a more active role in addressing the heightened challenges faced by H-2 workers recruited from Central America.
Update # 3 – Amicus Brief filed!
In a previous newsletter I shared with you that we were filing a motion to intervene in defense of the DOL’s farmworker protection rule currently under legal attack by State Attorneys General, growers and big-time farmers. Sadly, our motion to intervene was denied this week since the judge deemed that the DOL would represent our interests fairly.
But the good news is the judge allowed us to file our intervention brief as an extensive Amicus Brief —which our attorneys filed on Monday— to be considered in the case alongside DOL’s arguments.
All in all it’s been an exciting week. Advocacy is such an important part of CDM’s work building a world where migrant rights are respected and laws and policies reflect migrant worker voices. AND SO ARE YOU! Your support is the reason all of this is possible. So, thank you.
I hope we can continue to count on your support and your fierce determination to create a fair and just world for all.